Thats because the RFU pays the clubs handsomely for the privilege, out of the proceeds of packed out international stadiums.

Having said that the biggest obstacle to this would be lack of interest for the Aussies.

What is in it for them? The NRL is going from strength to strength and they have the best league in the world. If you take players out of that, what is the prize on offer? To test themselves against the might of GB/England and see if they can win the Ashes?

It would be the equivalent of telling the SL clubs they had to lose England players for a few weeks of the season to play an international series in France. Would the benefits of proving ourselves best in Europe against the French, be worth sacrificing players from the domestic competition? Because thats how the Aussies will see playing us.

The Jonathon Davies try against the Aussies was one of the highlights of all my time watching rugby league. Great day out at Wembley.

Seems like that level of interest is now a distant memory.

Not wanting to state the blindly obvious but ....... aren't most of these memories of Great Britain & club vs country tour games being fantastic and huge attendances, all pre-Super League?

Isn't that the dimension that really changed things, rather than just the England v Great Britain arguement?

The SL 'war' was one of the biggest reasons the International game lost momentum.

The SL test at Wembley had about 30k people there from memory.

The other reason overlooked as to why the crowds were bigger then was that we had all the ex-Union stars playing - Jiffy and the like. It was this that caused our media profile to increase and therefore the crowds watching it.

The SL war was then compounded by the 2k WC which lead to a complete retrenching of the international game. We only got back to Wembley last year (great day out.)

I don't see this as an either or argument - can't we have both? It's not beyound the wit of man surely to arrange an international schedule whereby we have a 4 Nations (England) and World Cup (England, Wales etc.) some years and a GB Ashes maybe every 5 years to follow up on a World Cup?

As SC pointed out, the big issue is the NRL clubs releasing players. Hopefully they can be sold on the fact that players getting international exposure helps build the league and its overall value.

It's worth remembering that the early-90s halcyon days, as great as they were, was the last period before flight prices came down and before we could watch Australian RL several times a week on Sky TV. Because we know all of the Australian players and see them on a weekly basis, the idea of a tour simply doesn't hold any of the same mystique these days.

The other reason there was excitement around those series, reaching their peak I guess with the '95 World Cup was that RL fans would still bother to go outside of their front rooms to watch rugby with a positive attitude. Multi-channel TV, Twitter and RLFans means they can sit in their underpants, like Marco-van-B did last weekend, and moan to his heart's content to what he would like to think of as a global audience. Rather than step in the cold and play a part in making international RL great again.

The effect of the SKY TV deals shouldn't be ignored too. Pre-SL, we used to have Challenge Cup, Regal Trophy and Internationals all on the BBC. That, plus the mystique of the Aussies plus high-profile RU defectors all helped raise the profile of RL and many players were recognisable names. Such as Hanley, Offiah, Davies et al.

SKY came in and gave the clubs much needed instant money and to a lesser extent (the original deal was £87m!) ongoing money, but a downside has been less games live on the BBC on a Saturday afternoon. It would be interesting to compare the TV viewing figures for, say, a Regal Trophy final against this years SL Grand Final.

I put this post up as I wondered if anyone else had good memories of international Rugby league as it used to be, i.e. International Tours.
The response has mostly been very positive, and people seem to be making constructive comments on how we could get back to an era where our flagship games were top sport viewing for the entire country.
Some valid points have been raised about the clash of seasons making it difficult now and I accept these arguments.

You on the other hand have decided to come on here and insult me because I didn’t go to Wrexham.
Last week you described people who didn’t share your enthusiasm for the modern internationals as, nobheads and s.

It is true; I think that the current International Game is a waste of time, and that this 4 Nations Tournament is a Mickey Mouse Competition.
I think that the pitiful crowd last Saturday, and the one sided hammering proves me right not to even consider going, it was a no contest.
As I pointed out, why did the England team need go to South Africa for altitude training to prepare for that?
Also if by avoiding games like this it means that I don’t have to share the same acre of planet, with foul mouthed ignorant people like you, then it’s a “win-win”, for me.

You can't blame the customers for not wanting a rubbish product.

In 95 Wales had Jonathan Davies, Allan Bateman, Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell, Iestyn Harris....people will turn up to watch them. You aren't going to get people turning up to watch a bunch of semi pros get flogged by 80 points by England because its not interesting.

Who looks a bigger dick? Tomkins or the worlds greatest hooker.

Arsene Wenger.

Warrington players having a great game in this afternoon's match. France seem to be kicking a lead ball.

Nice of Hock to get MOM just so the BBC can ask him about his alleged move to Parramatta.

He had a poor game and was nowhere near the best player on the pitch.

The pitiful crowd did not prove you right to not go - expecting the crowd to be poor should not be a reason not to go. However you do have a point about the mis-matches - sadly these games are not doing much to improve international RL credibility.



They didn't. They went to SA as part of the preperations for RLWC2013. The team needs to spend as much time together as it can so that when the big games against Aus and/or NZ come round, they are ready. It was interesting to see the Warrington players comment on how things they did in Aus in January were still in their mind before and during the Grand Final in October. These intensive training camps can do so much to prepare players individually and as a team for big events.

It is a great shame that the otherwise successful inclusion in SL of Catalans has not helped (yet) produce a more competitive France team and obviously it's extremely dissapointing we don't currently have a Welsh team at all in SL. But I still don't see the current and recent weaknesses as reasons to give up. International RL does have a place and it can be successful with a bit of tweaking. And I'm convinced RLWC2013 is going to be a good event with mostly competitive matches.

hmmm, I see England hammered Fiji today in that other type of rugby. A one-sided, meaningless game - surely no-one bothered to turn up, right? Er, hang on, this must be wrong. I've just looked it up and apparently 81,000+ were at Twickers! If only RL had fans like that! Then we'd get more attention, more money, more sponsors, more attention, more money, more players, better facilities, more money, more attention etc. Many RL fans moan about what is provided for them and about how the game is run - if only they'd turn up to games then perhaps they'd have less to moan about?

Maybe the fact that one-sided meaningless games are very infrequent in RU leads to more people caring about the national side, and therefore turning up like we would for a wire match against a team (I know we don't get 81k but you see my point).